EAST PROVIDENCE — When it first began, JFK was in the White House, Vietnam was in the future, no one had ever heard of the Beatles and the biggest name in golf was Arnold Palmer.It was 1962.

EAST PROVIDENCE — When it first began, JFK was in the White House, Vietnam was in the future, no one had ever heard of the Beatles and the biggest name in golf was Arnold Palmer.

It was 1962.

It was called the Northeast Amateur, it was played at the Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, and what were the odds that it would still be around today, a half a century later? Or that we would see so many big names in the game come through here, everyone from Tiger Woods to Rickie Fowler, with Ben Crenshaw and Hal Sutton to make up the foursome?

But it’s still here, as the decades come and go, one of this state’s sports jewels, even if everything changes. It’s still here and its alumni include nine U.S. Open winners, four Masters winners, eight British Open winners and nine PGA champions. Roll those numbers around on your tongue for awhile. Then add 24 national amateur champions, five British amateur champions and an amazing 20 NCAA champions.

Is it any wonder it’s been called “the Masters of amateur golf.”

And there’s no question it’s seen a lot of great moments, and not just great golf. Like the time Bruins hockey great Bobby Orr was playing with Bill Lunnie, who has been around Wannamoisett for 64 years now, and the first tee was mobbed, many undoubtedly there to see Orr.

“I am really nervous,” Orr said to Lunnie on the first tee.

“How can you be nervous?” Lunnie asked. “You’re Bobby Orr.”

“This isn’t a hockey rink,” Orr said.

No, it’s not.

It’s a Donald Ross-designed course and has been one of the jewels of Rhode Island golf ever since.

“Getting Ben Crenshaw in 1973 changed everything,” Lunnie said.

In retrospect, the first decade of the tournament was what you would have expected, a regional one, full of excellent players, but many back then were the best amateurs in New England, not the young wunderkinds that now compete in the event. To look at the top 10 finishers back then is to see many familiar names in New England at the time. Excellent golfers? For sure. But not ones who were trying to use the Northeast Amateur as a springboard to the PGA Tour.

But then came Crenshaw, from Texas no less, one of those wunderkinds who already was on the fast track to the big time.

That was the beginning, and to look at the year-by-year lists of the top finishers gives you all the evidence you need. In 1977, the Northeast Amateur was won by Scott Hoch from North Carolina, who would go on to the PGA Tour and play on two Ryder Cup teams. John Cook from Ohio, another wunderkind whose future was the Tour, won the next two years. Hal Sutton once came in a private jet with his mother and sister.

The Northeast Amateur had gone uptown.

One of Jack Nicklaus’ kids played for five years. Another played for four years.

Or as Lunnie says, “The people who didn’t win here are more impressive than those who did.”

Like the PGA Tour wunderkind Jordan Spieth, who didn’t finish in the top 10 three years ago. Or Rickie Fowler who didn’t finish in the top 10 in 2007.

But here it is, 52 years later and the Northeast Amateur still is one of the key stops on the summer amateur circuit, and yesterday at noon some of the best young players in the country were on the putting green waiting for the shotgun start that would send them out for a sponsor tournament. One was Will Dickson, the Moses Brown sophomore who won the state schoolboy title by 14 strokes, already billed as this state’s next great golfer. Another is Andy Zhang, originally from Beijing, now living in Reunion, Fla.

He is just 16, but already he’s on the fast track. Two years ago, he became the youngest player ever to play in the U.S. Open. It’s no surprise that his goal is the Tour.

So there’s no question this is a great field.

The only problem?

Lunnie says the crowds have been down for 20 years now. Is it not enough local players? Is it the fact that only the most ardent golf aficionados know who the players are, even if many have the potential to become big names in the game? Is it that there’s no one local with the kind of recognition that Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade had as kids? Is it that there’s no one like Brett Quigley who won in 1988?

That is one of the issues Ben Tuthill is dealing with.

He is the new director, grew up across the street and has housed a player for the past five years, as many of the players through the years are housed by the members, a long-standing tradition.

“A lot of the top players in the world have been here,” Tuthill said.

Even Tiger Woods.

He played in the Northeast Amateur in 1993, shot 70, 75, and then withdrew.

But the Northeast Amateur went on.

One of this state’s sports jewels. Something that’s been going on here since 1962, back when JFK was in the White House, and the biggest name in golf was Arnold Palmer.

Even if too many local golf fans maybe now seem to take it for granted.